Voices of the Valley supports the transition to renewable energy for Latrobe Valley and Gippsland. The take-up of rooftop solar by business and domestic users is clearly evident and plans for solar and wind farms across the region are progressing well. We need these projects to proceed steadily to ensure job opportunities and energy security as the coal industry winds down. The LNP proposal for nuclear generators to replace coal-fired power stations can only be seen as a distraction and block to renewable energy and dispatchable power.

The Latrobe Valley is not a suitable site for a nuclear power station.

• Both Victorian and Federal governments have held enquiries into nuclear energy, and both have concluded that Australia should not build nuclear power stations. Victoria’s most recent inquiry was tabled in Parliament in 2020 and, at the Federal level, the Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act of 1983 is still in force. More recently, Australian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Act of 1998/2024 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A00383/latest/text) and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act of 1999 /2023 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A00485/latest/text) also prohibit nuclear power in all states and territories of Australia. Nuclear power stations cannot be built in Australia.

• Even if there were changes to legislation to make nuclear power possible, it would take many years and an enormous investment to build a nuclear power station, which would make nuclear power prohibitively expensive. As there are no sites now for nuclear power plants, it would take a number of years to have a site declared (noting that it took 6 years from the initial proposal for Star of the South for the Gippsland Off Shore wind site to be approved.) Then it would probably take several years of planning, environmental checks, objections, modifications, etc before development could be approved, let alone start. 

• The CSIRO and AEMO calculated costs for various forms of energy generation and the 2023-24 report notes, "Using the standard formula for levelised costs plus the additional calculations specific to additional storage and transmission needs, wind and solar come in at an average of $112 per megawatt hour in 2023, decreasing to $82 per megawatt hour in 2030. In contrast, based on the available updated cost data, SMRs come in at an average $509 per megawatt hour in 2023, decreasing to $282 in 2030. This projection shows nuclear SMR capital costs are almost half from today, but still well above the projected costs for wind and solar. (https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2023/December/Nuclear-explainer). The levelized costs do not include storage of nuclear waste or site remediation. 

• Current power station operators hold licences for years to come and the land they hold will not become available until their rehabilitation responsibilities are completed.

• Nuclear power stations require a great deal of water. There are already concerns about the competing demands for water between agriculture, maintaining environmental water quality downstream of the Latrobe Valley, mine rehabilitation, not to mention uncertainties related to climate change.

• Ground stability is an important requirement for nuclear power stations. Not only is there some surface instability related to long term disruption of the water table resulting from decades of mining, but there are fault lines that point to the possibility of earthquakes.

• The last few years have made clear the costs associated with coal mining and coal burning; environmental, human health, and rehabilitation costs. How much greater are the costs of nuclear power generation when there is no safe method of disposing of nuclear waste?

• Is there a social licence for nuclear power in the Latrobe Valley? Nuclear power stations elsewhere are considered safe for people to live 16 km away. All of the current power stations in the Valley are within 16km of most of the population. In case of a nuclear accident the danger zone is 80 km. That would affect most of Gippsland and the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. We have not been asked if this is something we see as the future of our area, but there is considerable evidence of acceptance that renewable energy is the way of the future and that we are no longer prepared to accept decisions being imposed on us.